United States v. Dockins

HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge.

. . .[D]efendant urges that the government failed to prove his status as a convicted felon, requiring reversal of his convictions for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and making false statements in the acquisition of a firearm. We affirm.

I.

In June 1987, defendant George James Dockins, using the name of Carl Smith, had repairs performed on his car at Little Willie's Salvage and Garage in Clarksdale, Mississippi. When Dockins went to pick up his car on June 30, he told the garage owner that someone had removed a shotgun from the car's trunk. After a brief search, Dockins found the gun and left the garage.

On July 22, Dockins returned to Little Willie's to pick up his car which had undergone further repairs. He informed the garage's foreman that he would not pay for the repairs without first taking the car for a test drive. Dockins then drove, with the foreman as his passenger, to the home of one of Dockins' relatives in Marks, Mississippi. After a brief stop, Dockins began to head in the opposite direction instead of returning to the garage. Dockins' passenger complained and, when the car came to a stop at an intersection, pushed it into park, took the keys from the ignition, and jumped out of the car. Dockins had other keys, however, and drove away.

The passenger gave the police a description of the car. The highway patrol later stopped Dockins for speeding. Dockins produced a Colorado driver's license in the name of George J. Dockins. The license check uncovered the fact that the license had been suspended, but under the name Carl Smith. After Dockins' arrest, an inventory search of the car turned up a .25 caliber, semi-automatic pistol and the sawed-off shotgun earlier seen by the garage owner. The police also found a VISA charge slip showing the purchase of a different shotgun by a Carl Smith at a local Wal-Mart.

ATF Agent Don Medley, Secret Service Agent Hal Purvis, and Sergeant Thomas McCloud interviewed Dockins the next day. After Miranda warnings, Dockins admitted that he purchased the pistol in Jonestown, Mississippi, used the VISA card in the name of Carl Smith, and signed the name Carl Smith on the Firearms Transaction Record, Form 4473, to buy a shotgun at Wal-Mart. The Form 4473 asked whether he had ever been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment exceeding one year, and Dockins, as Carl Smith, answered "no." Dockins denied knowledge of the sawed-off shotgun. Dockins admitted that he had been convicted of a felony in Colorado and that he frequently used aliases. Dockins was held in jail for approximately 60 days and released in September 1987.

A federal grand jury indicted Dockins on July 21, 1988 on two counts of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, one count of possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, and one count of making false statements in the acquisition of a firearm. A plea agreement was filed on December 28, 1989, but the court rejected it when Dockins' claimed innocence at the plea proceeding.

[. . .]

III.

Dockins argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions for illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and knowingly making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. Specifically, he argues the government failed to introduce any competent evidence of his status as a convicted felon, which was necessary to establish both offenses.

Without objection, the government introduced Exhibit 5, a judgment of conviction of Carl Tyron Smith on robbery charges in Colorado. The government attempted to link Dockins to this conviction through Exhibit 5a, a fingerprint card and police record sheet reflecting the arrest and conviction of Carl Smith. On its face, Exhibit 5a includes two official Denver Police Department documents. Agent Medley testified that he sent Exhibit 5a, along with handwriting exemplars, the original copy of the Form 4473, and a number of fingerprint cards, to the ATF Crime Laboratory. Medley said that Exhibit 5a included a fingerprint card from the Denver Police Department. Nancy Davis, a document examiner, testified that the signature of Carl Smith on the fingerprint card was written by Dockins. Next, the government called Rick Canty, a fingerprint expert, who testified that the fingerprints in Exhibit 5a matched the known fingerprints of Dockins. With Canty on the stand, the government offered Exhibit 5a into evidence. The court admitted the evidence over Dockins' objection on grounds of authentication.

After trial, Dockins moved for a Judgment of Acquittal Notwithstanding the Verdict or in the Alternative for a New Trial, claiming that Exhibits 5 and 5a had not been properly authenticated. [Footnote 3] The court held a hearing on the authenticity of these two exhibits. Laurence Jantz, an officer of the Denver Police Department, testified that the documents in Exhibit 5a were exact copies of the records in his file. The court ruled that Exhibit 5 was properly admitted, because Dockins did not object. As to Exhibit 5a, the court ruled that it was not a self-authenticating document under Rule 902. Neither the fingerprint card nor the police record sheet is under seal and no public officer of the Denver Police Department certified under seal that the signature is genuine; the certification on the fingerprint card is only a rubber stamp. . . . The court, without relying on the testimony of Jantz, nevertheless found this exhibit to be admissible under Rule 901.

-----Footnote 3-----

Dockins also argued that these documents contained inadmissible hearsay; however, Dockins did not object on this ground at trial. Authentication is the only question before us. . . .

-----End Footnote-----

The parties agree that the documents comprising Exhibit 5a are not self-authenticating. Admissibility turns on Rule 901. [Footnote 4] We do not require conclusive proof of authenticity, and Rule 901's list of illustrations is not exclusive. The issue is whether the district court abused its discretion in finding that the government presented sufficient evidence at trial to support a finding that Exhibit 5a contained official Denver Police Department documents. . . . We hold that it was an abuse of discretion to admit these documents.


-----Footnote 4-----

Rule 901. Requirement of Authentication or Identification

(a) General provision

The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.

-----End Footnote-----


Agent Medley testified that Exhibit 5a contained a fingerprint card from the Denver Police Department. However, he was simply testifying as to what appears on the face of the document. He had no knowledge, other than from reading the document, that the fingerprint card actually came from the Denver Police Department. Furthermore, Davis and Canty simply compared the signature and fingerprints contained in Exhibit 5a with known samples from Dockins. Their testimony had nothing to do with whether these documents came from the Denver Police Department.

Our decision in Jimenez Lopez is instructive. That case also required proof of a prior conviction. The government offered a copy of the Record of Proceedings and Judgment asserted to be from the office of a United States Magistrate for the Southern District of California. Like this case, the document was not self-authenticating. A border patrol agent, Johnston, testified that he personally requested the document and received it from a California border patrol agent who Johnston said procured it from the magistrate's court. In finding the document to have been properly admitted, we said,

"Without the testimony of Agent Johnston the admissibility of the document would have been doubtful. But Johnston's testimony as to the chain of custody of the photostatic copy combined with the internal indicia of reliability within the document itself justified the conclusion of the court that the document was admissible to prove its contents. Johnston was not testifying as custodian of the document. Rather, his testimony provided circumstantial evidence to support the conclusion that the document was an official record."

Medley was certainly not the custodian. Jantz was the custodian, but he did not testify at trial. [Footnote 8] The government offered no circumstantial evidence at trial to support a finding that Exhibit 5a came from the Denver Police Department. Consequently, there was no basis for a reasonable jury to conclude that these documents were what they purported to be. . . .

-----Footnote 8-----

If Jantz had testified at trial, Exhibit 5a would have been admissible under 901(b)(7).

-----End Footnote-----


The admission of Exhibit 5a, however, does not warrant reversal. The error was harmless; put another way, there was sufficient evidence of Dockins' prior felony conviction without Exhibit 5a. . . . Dockins told Agent Medley he had a prior felony conviction in Colorado, that he used aliases, that he used the VISA card in the name of Carl Smith, and that he signed the name Carl Smith on the Form 4473. Agent Medley testified to these admissions at trial. While "'an accused may not be convicted on his own uncorroborated confession,'" Dockins' statements to Medley are sufficiently corroborated. . . .

AFFIRMED.